Build Microsoft Dataverse-Connected Dashboards in Redash

Redash lets you connect and query your data sources, build dashboards to visualize data and share them with your company. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Microsoft Dataverse data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Microsoft Dataverse and build visualizations from Microsoft Dataverse data in Redash.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Microsoft Dataverse, allowing you to easily build reports from live Microsoft Dataverse data in Redash — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Redash generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Microsoft Dataverse, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Microsoft Dataverse data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Microsoft Dataverse Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "Microsoft Dataverse" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Microsoft Dataverse.

   You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.

   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
   • OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
   • Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.

   When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to Microsoft Dataverse data from Redash.

Visualize Microsoft Dataverse Data in Redash

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Redash based on the virtual Microsoft Dataverse database in Connect Server and building a simple visualization from the data.

Create a New Data Source

1. Log into Redash, click on your profile and click "Data Sources"
2. Click the " New Data Source" button
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the Data Source Type
4. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Name: Name the data source (e.g. Microsoft Dataverse (CData Connect))
   • Host: The full URL to your CData Connect instance (e.g. https://connect_server_url)
   • Port: The port of the CData Connect SQL Server endpoint (e.g. 1433)
   • User: A CData Connect user
   • Password: The password for the above user
   • Database name: The name of the virtual database for Microsoft Dataverse (e.g. CDS1)
   • Click the checkbox to Use SSQL
5. Click Create
6. Click the "Test Connection" button to ensure you have configured the connection properly

With the new Data Source created, we are ready to visualize our Microsoft Dataverse data.

Create a Microsoft Dataverse Data Visualization

1. Click Create -> New Query
2. Select the newly created Data Source (you can explore the data structure in the New Query wizard)
3. Write a SQL statement to retrieve the data, for example:
   SELECT AccountId, Name FROM Accounts WHERE Name = 'MyAccount'
4. Click the "Execute" button to load Microsoft Dataverse data into Redash via CData Connect
5. Use the Visualization Editor to create and analyze graphs from Microsoft Dataverse data
6. You can schedule the query to refresh and update the visualization periodically

SQL Access to Microsoft Dataverse Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to Microsoft Dataverse data from Redash. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Redash, refer to our Connect Server page.